Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the State Election Commission to ensure that the number of central forces deployed for the July 8 panchayat elections was not fewer than what was called for the same polls in 2013.

The court also said the state election commissioner — former chief secretary Rajiva Sinha — should step down if he fails to carry out the order.

The division bench led by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam was hearing a contempt petition moved by the leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, accusing the poll panel of failure to carry out the June 15 order asking it to deploy central forces within 48 hours of the order.

The state and state poll panel moved the Supreme Court to challenge the high court order. The Supreme Court, however, upheld the HC order. Then, the poll panel sought 22 companies of central forces for 22 districts during the single-phase poll.

The high court said deploying one company for each of the 22 districts was inadequate and asked the poll panel to requisition adequate central forces within 24 hours.

The Chief Justice said: “In the year 2013, when there were 17 districts..., 1 lakh state police and 80,000 central forces were deployed. At present Bengal has 22 districts. The SEC will have to consider it while seeking forces from the central government.”

In 2013, about 825 companies of central forces were deployed during the five-phase rural polls.

The bench pointed out that as the number of Bengal's voters and districts had risen since 2013, one company for each district was inadequate.

The bench said it could not understand what happened to the independence of the state election commission — which had approached the high court and the Supreme Court seeking deployment of central forces in 2013 — ahead of the 2023 election. The court said it had no hesitation in saying that previous orders were not complied with in letter and spirit, and hoped this one would be. It added that any attempt to make the order unworkable would have adverse consequences.

For the 2013 rural polls, the then state election commissioner Mira Pande sought 800 companies of central forces, which a senior bureaucrat said showed her grasp of ground realities.

Opposition leaders hailed Wednesday's court order. "I welcome the decision," Adhikari said. Left Front leader Biman Bose termed the order "absolutely right".

Trinamul spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said it was "unfortunate" that the court reflected whatever Opposition parties said.